Wednesday, March 25, 2009

where the wind blows

We're just days away from the TEAM Survivor San Diego's first dragon boat race at the Arizona Dragon Boat Festival in Tempe. This team has come a long way from our first days together when the dragon boat team was put together last Spring. I have no expectation of placing at the race and feel getting there with a strong, dedicated group of cancer survivors enthusiastic about a new found sport (for us) is a self-proclaimed victory.

To commerate the event and honor those who aren't able to be with us in the boat, Becca, our team captain, and I got together for a quick craft project to create our TSSD Dragon Boat Team prayer flags which we'll hang along our tent at the event...and hopefully, every event thereafter for as long as the flags last.

Traditionally, the colors of the flags represent all of the elements and the Five Pure Lights, however we used hues of our team color, purple, which commemorates awareness for all types of cancers, similar to how pink is used for breast cancer awareness. We kept the edges frayed since the tradition is to let the prayer flags dissolve into the wind so that the mantras, or in our case, words honoring our loved ones, are carried to all beings. Poetic, eh?

These flags will be written on by our team members this week, but we've also prepared additional fabric squares which we'll make available at our event for others to share their words. We hope they'll donate some money toward our cause as well...after all, we're a volunteer-run non-profit and want to continue to provide programs such as dragon boating to women cancer survivors in our community.

The concept of these prayer flags has really touched my heart and hope that it's the beginning of a new tradition for my team.